TV's All Time Most Overrated Show

Most TV shows are a reflection of their times in the sense that their potential is limited to the sensibilities and technology of their time. This is pretty obvious to most people, but when trying to rank TV shows in an all-time orders, modern shows are always going to have a leg up because their visual look is superior to their 50's-60's-70's-80's counterparts, and the writers have greater creative freedom now that in any other time in TV history.

So when people look to include older shows in an all-time list, they usually include shows that were ahead of their time, or were so influential that their basic blueprints are still followed today. Is Law and Order anything more than Dragnet with higher production values, and and additional last half-hour in a courtroom setting? Has anyone done the basic husband and wife sitcom better than The Honeymooners?

One show from the 1960's is always held in high esteem (the show was #13 in TV Guide's top 50 list in 2002), always mentioned as being tuned into "modern sensibilites", supposedly possessing a more sophisiticated type of humor that other shows of its era.

That claim was a fraud then, it's a fraud now, and the time has come to expose this myth.

So I present to you, TV's All Time Most Overrated Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Yes, the one everyonse supposedly loves, with Mary Tyler Moore, Buddy, Sally et. al.

The Myth vs. The Facts

Myth: This show threw off the stodgy constraints of 50's sitcoms. Rob and Laura were hip, they were young, they were sexy suburbanites living outside the button-down world.

Facts: This show premiered the same year Kennedy was sworn in as President, and that Camelot magic rubbed off on people's perception of the sitcom (it sure helped that MTM looked like the First Lady). If this show was so modern and sexy, why did Rob and Laura sleep in separate beds? Much more "modern" was the show Bewitched (but that's another post)

Myth: MTM was a new kind of sitcom mom. She was allowed to wear sexy pants (believe me, it was a big deal back then). She was a proto-feminist, much more an equal partner in marriage than June Cleaver.

Facts: MTM's character is mentally unstable. Any common household event, like Richie forgetting his milk money, launches her in crisis mode, she screeches "Oh, Rob" and then he has to stop whatever he is doing and solve her problem. How feminist and forward thinking tohave you husband rescue you. June Cleaver may not have been liberated, but she certainly knew what to do in her family role of "Mom". MTM's character would have been reaching for "Mother's Little Helper" all day long.

Myth: The humor in this show was "sophisticated" compared to other shows of its time.

Facts: This is the biggest myth of all. The main source of humor comes from such topical and relevant issues as...baldness. Get it? Mel is bald! When he walks into the room, Buddy will make a bald joke! One of the most celebrated episodes of this show centers around the fact that Laura says Alan Brady is bald on national television. How cutting edge and sophisticated!

And we also have the sophisticated humor of Dick Van Dyke falling over ottomans, running into doors, accidentally getting hypnotized (I think he uses this conceit to act like a drunk) etc., etc.

And my personal favorite in the "sophisticated" humor department: At least once or twice a season, Rob, Buddy, and Sally would be at a cocktail party. To entertain the guests, they would do old burlesque and vaudeville routines. Those jokes had to be 50 years old! I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to work in the "NIAGARA FALLS! Slowly I turned..." at some point.

How could this show rank #13 on TV Guide's list of all time shows? Does anyone with a brain really think that The Dick Van Dyke Show is a better TV show than The X-Files? Than The Larry Sanders Show? Than Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

The Dick Van Dyke Show was a mediocre show in its time, and TV's All Time Most Overrated Show.